Final answer:
The basic premise of behavior therapy is that behaviors can be changed. This approach focuses on learned behaviors that are influenced by environmental stimuli and can be modified through operant conditioning and other learning principles.
Step-by-step explanation:
The basic premise of behavior therapy is that behaviors can be changed. This perspective within psychology asserts that all forms of human behavior, including thoughts and emotions, can be seen as behaviors subject to modification through learning. Behavioral therapy operates on the principle that our actions are products of conditioning and learning from our environment. According to this view, behaviors are responses to external stimuli which, through reinforcement and consequence, are either encouraged or extinguished.
Behaviorists such as B.F. Skinner put forward the idea that the environment exclusively shapes personality through reinforcements and consequences rather than biological determinism. They believe that learned behaviors are adaptive and can be modified in response to environmental changes. Techniques such as operant conditioning, where a response is modified by its consequences, are central to behavior therapy.
Overall, the objective of behavior therapy is to identify and alter problematic behaviors through various strategies, which include the use of reinforcement and punishment as well as cognitive interventions to alter behavior patterns.